title: Frozen shoulder and the Big Five personality traits.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In the past, several studies have suggested the existence of a "periarthritic personality" in patients with frozen shoulder. We conducted a study to determine differences in personality traits in patients with primary and secondary frozen shoulders.
  
  
  METHODS
  We prospectively evaluated 118 patients (84 women and 34 men; mean age, 53.8 years; SD 7.56) with a frozen shoulder. Of these patients, 48 had an idiopathic frozen shoulder and 70 had a secondary frozen shoulder. Personality traits were determined by the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) scale. This questionnaire measures the 5 major personality traits and is based on the norms determined in a neutral test situation for 2415 controls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with healthy controls, no differences in personality traits were found in patients with primary and secondary frozen shoulder, except for Conscientiousness and Extraversion, for which patients with secondary frozen shoulder scored significantly higher than healthy controls. Patients with primary frozen shoulder scored significantly higher on Openness to Experience than did patients with secondary frozen shoulder; on the other 4 Big Five personality traits, no significant differences were found between patients with primary and secondary frozen shoulder. More specifically, patients with idiopathic frozen shoulder did not score higher on the trait Neuroticism as would be expected from previous publications.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study results do not indicate that patients with an idiopathic frozen shoulder have a specific personality compared with healthy controls. Only a few differences were found in personality traits when the entire frozen shoulder group was compared with healthy controls and between patients with primary and secondary frozen shoulders. The results of this study suggest that these differences are not sufficient to speak about a specific "frozen shoulder personality."
authors.affiliation: Orthopedics, University Hospitals Leuven & Department of Development and Regeneration, KU Leuven, Pellenberg, Belgium. Electronic address: philippe.debeer@uzleuven.be.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Debeer
authors.affiliation: Musculoskeletal Research Unit, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Fien
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Franssens
authors.affiliation: Musculoskeletal Research Unit, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Roosen
authors.affiliation: Musculoskeletal Research Unit, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Wim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Dankaerts
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Laurence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Claes
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001008:Anxiety Disorders; D002062:Bursitis / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000075384:Neuroticism; D010551:Personality; D010552:Personality Assessment; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Big Five personality traits; Cross-Sectional Design; Epidemiology Study; Level III; NEO-FFI; Personality; primary frozen shoulder; secondary frozen shoulder